Editorial: Our future is at stake

Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

The awful truth about Southern Nevada's ongoing drought is that growth here will come to a stop within a decade unless we augment water from Lake Mead with water from somewhere else.

A plan 16 years in the making by the Southern Nevada Water Authority is our best hope. It involves pumping ground water from deep aquifers in Lincoln and White Pine counties and piping it south to Clark County.

There really is no viable alternative for the near future. Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy believes 91,000 acre-feet from the Spring Valley region of Lincoln County, and 25,000 acre-feet from the Snake Valley region of White Pine County, will carry us for the next 40 years, by which time the drought will hopefully be over and perhaps Nevada will be receiving a greater share of Colorado River water.

A hearing before the state engineer begins Monday morning in Carson City regarding the Spring Valley portion of the plan. We believe the plan is sound, as it focuses 100 percent on deep ground water, not the surface water that residents of the two regions currently use. State law protects their water sources, and monitoring wells will help ensure that the deep aquifers remain healthy as water is gradually removed.

As we said on this page three weeks ago, we believe this plan is vital for Clark County and that its built-in safeguards will benefit all of Nevada.